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Law & Lawyers

My Electric Bill

My utility keeps and makes money on PSC-set delivery charges, $15.51, 29 percent of my latest electric bill, or 47 cents per day.

My electric bill this month is $53.41. For the 33 days through April 5th, the electricity for our three-bedroom Victorian house cost $1.62 per day, or 14 cents per kilowatt-hour. 

We took just 383 kilowatt-hours from the grid. It's not much. The national average is nearly three times that amount. But this bill of mine covered parts of March and April when air conditioning isn't used.

My bills have been this way for six straight months, since mid-October of last year. We've been taking 353 to 409 kilowatt-hours per month. 

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Electricity's Ten Greatest Achievements in the Last 25 Years

Emission reduction, combined-cycle, fracking, regional transmission, smart grid, wind, solar, energy efficiency, cost reduction, nuclear revival.

We're inspired by stories of the nation's electrification in the twentieth century.And the lasting monuments to the toil of our grandfathers and fathers: the Hoover Dam, a hundred nuclear workhorses, a grid spanning the continent. 

Many have thought that this industry's best days are long behind us, in that fading age of miracles.They should look closer at our great achievements, the monuments we've erected in the last twenty-five years.

Take a look at this list, my nominees for electricity's greatest achievements since 1991:

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Scarface Al Capone Thwarted by Utilities' Sam Insull

Decades later we’ve learned Sam Insull was a member of the courageous Secret Six

February 14, 1929. The day of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Scarface Al Capone eliminated the rival Chicago gang of Bugs Moran.

How did federal agent Eliot Ness and the Untouchables bring down Capone? It turns out the utilities industry, Sam Insull particularly, was the key.

Capone was feared by all. Chicago's mayor and the Illinois attorney general would or could do little. 

But Capone made the mistake of murdering a contractor superintendent. Chicago's Chamber of Commerce was outraged. And so the Secret Six was formed.

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Have a Happy Fourth of September!

Lewis Latimer’s birthday, Pearl Street Station’s anniversary

What's so special about this Sunday, the Fourth of September? It's both Lewis Latimer's birthday and the hundred and thirty-fourth anniversary of Pearl Street Station.

Here's an excerpt from the September issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly heading your way:

On September 4, 1848, Lewis Latimer was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts. His parents were slaves in Virginia who escaped to Boston. The slave owner came to Boston to reclaim them, in one of the most important cases of the abolitionist movement. The slave owner was eventually paid for their freedom.

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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The Bands of Regulation at La Quinta

NARUC’s Annual Meeting each November is the epic festival of regulation’s rock stars

Nov. 16, 2016: This week it’s been the center of the universe. No, not Trump Tower. La Quinta of course, California’s host town for the NARUC Annual Meeting.

NARUC’s Winter Meeting in February and Summer Meeting in July are enormous gatherings of utility regulators and their fandom. But the Annual Meeting each November is the epic festival of regulation’s rock stars.

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Solar Shines As Regulatory Battles Abound

A tough legal and financial terrain is confronting producers, utilities and regulators.

State commissions are challenged to find the sweet spot whereby utilities can afford to maintain their systems and homeowners are motivated to go green.
Byline: 

Ken Silverstein

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New House Sales Driving Electricity Sales

South now 57% of new house sales, Northeast/Midwest just 16%

November 2015 new house sales were 4 percent greater than the prior month and 9 percent greater than November 2014. More importantly, from the perspective of the electric utility industry, as well as the natural gas utility industry, new house sales in the South were 5 percent greater than the prior month and 19 percent greater than November 2014.

What happens in the South is crucial to the national numbers on electricity. To show why, look at the regional breakdown of electricity sales.

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Electricity Two Percent of GDP

America’s electric bill, two to three percent since the 1950’s, now steadily two percent

There are several good measures of what electricity costs us. What's the best? Let's try dividing the total of all our electric bills into America's gross domestic product, its GDP.

This way, we capture all our expenditures on electric service. Whether directly through residential bills. Or indirectly through the bills paid by businesses and institutions that we ultimately pay for (through our purchases of all goods and services).

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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Articles We Accept for Publication in PUF

We’re raising the bar, including only the most thought-provoking and engaging articles.

You knew something was up when you received your February issue of Public Utilities Fortnightly. It had more pages and more features. And a new attractive look and feel. 

By now you’ve received your March issue. Still more pages and more features. And an even more attractive look and feel. 

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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New Consumer Survey on Electric Bills

Friday’s data release from Labor Dept.: Westerners pay $3.27/day for electricity, Midwesterners $3.44, Easterners $3.73.

Like Christmas in April, we're surrounded by sumptuous surprises. On Friday, the Labor Department came down the chimney with how much American households spent on pork, postage, pets, personal care products, pensions, and everything else during the year ending June 2015, including electricity.

Byline: 

Steve Mitnick

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